in a final interview, he said he's hopeful the economy will strengthen this year. the defense department has begun eliminating the jobs of all 46,000 temporary civilian employees at the pentagon. the announcement today said it's a response to mandatory, across- the-board spending cuts. they're scheduled to take effect march 1, unless congress comes up with alternative cuts. without changes, hundreds of thousands of full-time civilian employees will face furloughs and reduced paychecks by april. the government of syria called today for thousands of refugees to come home, including those opposed to the regime. nearly 600,000 syrians have fled the civil war and gone to neighboring countries. there's been a new surge this week. we have a report narrated by alex thomson of independent television news. >> the children say they double-checked their figures. they counted around 10,000 children in the overcrowded camps in jordan in just the past 24 hours with the parents or gardens they recognized around 20,000 people in all. with the winter cold and conditions like this, i